President Nariman Farvardin

Dr. Nariman Farvardin became the seventh president of Stevens Institute of Technology in July 2011. Since joining Stevens, Farvardin has been the driving force for the development and implementation of an ambitious 10-year Strategic Plan, entitled, The Future. Ours to Create., which aims to increase the university’s stature, impact and size through: growth and increased selectivity in undergraduate and graduate student populations; targeted investments in areas of societal benefit, including healthcare and medicine, sustainable energy, financial systems, defense and security, and STEM education; and an unyielding commitment to excellence across all sectors of the university.

Farvardin joined Stevens from the University of Maryland, where he was a member of the faculty for 27 years. He served as the University of Maryland’s Senior Vice President for Academic Affairs and Provost from 2007-2011, having previously served as Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Chair of the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering and Dean of the A. James Clark School of Engineering. Among Farvardin’s accomplishments at the University of Maryland was spearheading the development and implementation of the University of Maryland’s ambitious strategic plan, Transforming Maryland: Higher Expectations.

Farvardin is an accomplished researcher in the areas of information theory and coding, multimedia signal compression and transmission, high-speed networks, and wireless networks. He has made significant contributions to a number of communications standards and practical systems in data communication, image and video compression, and voice coding in wireless applications.

Farvardin holds seven U.S. patents in data communication, image coding, and wireless communication. He also co-founded two companies: Zagros Networks, a venture-funded fabless semiconductor company; and NovaTherm Technologies, a high-tech start-up company that develops technologies to improve the energy efficiency of buildings.

A fellow of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE), Farvardin served multi-year terms as associate editor for two IEEE publications: Transactions on Communications, from 1986 to 1990, andTransactions on Information Theory, from 1992 to 1995. He has co-authored more than 150 technical papers in journals and conference proceedings.

A passionate advocate of technological innovation, Farvardin has served on the boards of several companies and educational non-profit organizations. In December 2013 he was named a Fellow of the National Academy of Inventors, which honors academic innovators who are named on a patent issued by the USPTO and who have contributed to the invention of products, goods and services which have positively impacted quality of life, economic development and welfare of society. Also in Fall 2012, he was named CEO of the Year by the New Jersey Technology Council, the state’s premier trade association for technology companies.

Farvardin served as Chairman of the New Jersey President’s Council Task Force on Alignment of Higher Education Programs and New Jersey Workforce Needs. He is a member of the Board of Directors of the New Jersey Technology Council. He was chosen by the Governor of Maryland to serve on the state’s task forces for Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) and Nano-biotechnology, and he chaired the University System of Maryland’s Task Force on Cybersecurity.

In recognition of his contributions to technology education and his support of innovation and entrepreneurship, Farvardin was featured in The Washington Post as one of the “Five to Watch” in 2003. Among his honors are the National Science Foundation's Presidential Young Investigator Award, the George Corcoran Award for Outstanding Contributions to Electrical Engineering Education, and the University of Maryland’s Invention of the Year Award in Information Sciences.

A native of Tehran, Iran, Farvardin earned his bachelor’s, master’s, and doctoral degrees from the Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in Troy, New York, in 1979, 1980, and 1983, respectively.